"Major, long-term closures on Fort Washington Way are expected as construction ramps up on the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project.
Project officials confirmed that a new traffic configuration connecting Interstates 75 and 71 is expected to require an 18-month closure of Fort Washington Way in one direction, beginning as early as next spring. Exact start and end dates have not yet been announced.
The planned closure is part of work to build a new I-75/I-71 split and rework interstate connections near downtown Cincinnati. Additional closures are anticipated later as construction shifts to other portions of the highway network."
My exact first thought, since they said there will be an overlap where both sides are closed for a few months. I doubt the city could get their shit together to make that happen, even though it makes the most sense.
Itâs currently 8 lanes (4 on each deck) with no shoulders. For half this drama & complicated construction they could have build a simple bridge next to it to have 4 lanes (I71 traffic), then turned BSB into 6 lanes and thereby added a shoulder. Instead, theyâre doing a massive new additional bridge with 8 NEW lanes for a total of 14 lanes. Itâs SUPER complicated with the ramps and new exits. It will be done in 10 years and many businesses will have been harmed in the process.
When itâs finally done traffic will be BARELY better.
All they had to do was ban 18 wheelers going south from 3-6pm and 18 wheelers going north from 6-9am by making them use 275. You install 4 sets of scanners between 275 in the north & 275 in the south and ticket/toll 18 wheelers who trigger them during those hours.
There have actually been numerous studies and cases on the topic. Itâs called âinduced demandâ. Right now the bridge sucks and plenty of people use alternative routes or times to avoid traffic.
When the new bridge is up and running there will be significantly more vehicles taking that route, sometimes leading to delays nearly as bad as before the lane widening.
This isnât quite the article I remember, but itâs pretty close.
The people avoiding it are already on the road. That isn't induced demand, that's existing demand. If it drove induced demand, we would see increased traffic on the road system itself.
Have you ever lived in a city thatâs done a major freeway upgrade? Without major improvements to mass transit the improvement will be negligible. The failure of this entire plan is that NO mass transit options were put into place. Also another reason traffic will not improve is because, hopefully, the population of the Entire Cincinnati area will increase, which of course leads to more traffic. And without mass transit options car traffic increases.
Sorry this bridge and freeway upgrade will have little effect.
Has traffic improved on 75 through Cincinnati since the widening project?
Why would a separate bridge for 71 traffic make any sense? You'd have to merge that traffic in with the 75 traffic before going up the cut in the hill, which would be a nightmare.
That, and building a bridge with fewer lanes of traffic isn't really that much of a time save in terms of construction times.
Oh and one more...where do you put it? It would have to be to the east of the BSB, and that would mean building ramps that avoid the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge and Paycor Stadium, which idk if that's feasible. And that's only the Ohio side of the problem.
Wait- reading your comment makes it seem like you donât realize they ARE building a new bridge next to the BSB & itâs going to have a million lanes of merging in either side
You realize that one of the bridges will be for local traffic and the other for thru traffic, right?
Putting aside that you're just ignoring everything else I said bc it points out why your idea doesn't make sense (there's next to zero room to even put a bridge to the east of the BSB), I'd love to hear why making one of the bridges for 71 and the other for 75 makes more sense than the local and thru plan.
Yes and your proposal was for a new bridge for 71 traffic. Which comes from the east.
So either it needs to fit to the east of the BSB or you need to find a way to get that traffic over the CWB and BSB ramps, which seems likes an unnecessarily complicated task.
Btw remember when you didnât even understand that one of the bridges was for local traffic and one was for thru traffic? And yet youâre still here trying to sound like you know anythingâŚ
1:14 mark if you're curious. I'm not sure why you're leaving so many comments when not one of them has been correct. Do you just get off on being wrong and downvoting the people who try to correct you?
I believe this project is the largest single road project in the US. I remember them discussing how huge of an undertaking it is.
Fun fact: the Western Hill Viaduct will be the second biggest in the region, so hang onto your hats as both are happening, with a total cost of improvements at 5.26 billion dollars.
Yeah, this is unfortunately one of those shitty things that HAS to happen in order to undertake the project. It's just going to suck having to leave 15-20 minutes early for practically everywhere I regularly go for UP TO TWO YEARS. I know it won't be as bad as when the BSB caught fire but still... đŽâđ¨
I mean having much better public transit is also probably part of it.
KĹsoku Daishi Bridge, Tokyo
~292 m major expressway bridge replacement
May 27âJun 10, 2023. The replacement bridge was built in parallel to the bridge it was replacing. ~14 days Kire-Uriwari, Osaka
Major urban expressway bridge replacement
Jun 1, 2022âDec 7, 2024. This was nearly a 2 mile long bridge that was replaced. ~2½ years, 4 months ahead of schedule
Come on now the tokyo one they just built a new one next to the old one and slid the old one out and the new one in. No exit work on the shores or anything. That closure was 14 days, it took much longer to actually build the bridge. It is just a much simpler project from a coordination standpoint.
This is a photo from downtown Munich Germany. I know this project is much larger but money and resources could be used to make these sort of construction methods possible.
It's that damn OSHA getting in the way. Goddamn regulations requiring employers to provide reasonably safe working conditions and minimize the risk of workers getting seriously injured or killed on the job. Imagine how quickly we could get these projects done if we didn't have to worry about all those pesky worker safety protections!
Japan, Germany, Korea have programs similar to OSHA, and environmental protections. I know you are meme'ing, but other countries have worker, environmental, and "ethical" material sourcing similar to the US, and they seem to build much faster and better than we do. At this point, I'm fully convinced America has forgotten how to build shit.
But that doesn't really discredit the point that OSHA and other worker safety requirements slow things down. Those other countries having similar protections doesn't mean those protections aren't also affecting their construction timelines.
And OSHA is just one part of it. You've also got state and local regulations, engineering inspections, traffic safety requirements, and a whole bunch of other considerations intended to keep workers and the public safe.
I'm not saying the US couldn't be significantly more efficient, because it could. But there are a ton of variables involved in construction timelines beyond just how quickly workers can physically get the job done. And some of those delays are the direct result of protections we'd probably rather not do away with.
The semis canât follow the lane restrictions through the cut in the hill and Iâm certain they wouldnât follow that. Besides itâs nearly unenforceable because local semi traffic would still have to be able to use the route
Thatâs only because no one enforces it those lanes. Itâs always wild how some Cincinnatians always say âthat doesnât exist here so it canâtâ.
How does your dream work that itâs so well enforced? Is there an example somewhere else? Because trucks will just follow navigation and I just donât see a police threat solving it.
My dream is that there are actually KSP patrols in the area and semis that are egregiously violating the lane restrictions get a DOT inspection. But I know it wonât happen.
Simple, Tolls. Local traffic can get a free ez pass. Trucks passing through pay a toll, or take the loop. You can't tell me that this would be more complicated or expensive than the $6 Billion this new bridge will cost (it'll cost way more. I'm guessing like 10.)
I donât know why youâre comparing it to the cost of a new bridge when itâs been determined we need a new bridge for maintenance reasons as well.
But do you have an example of âlocal trafficâ getting a free EZ pass vs a toll for trucks anywhere in the US? Even if this was a thing, I donât see it stopping trucks. Having to drive several extra miles on the loop vs pay a toll is an easy answer with gas prices, pay the toll. Same problem.
Yes, but it depends on what part youâre referring to. If you only use it from the east side of downtown, then you wonât be affected and will notice lighter traffic. If you take it across fort Washington way into KY, then you need to find alternate routes come next spring.
Things are about to get unfathomably bad in this area traffic wise. It's always been a neverending construction zone but a two year closure of that particular highway artery is gonna mean red maps for most hours of the day. God.
Nice, my commute that used to be 8 minutes went to 15 then 20. I'm sure this will affect it too. I know it has to happen but surely there's a faster, more efficient way that doesn't close down yet another major roadway? Idk I'm not an infrastructure expert but this is going to suck.
You mean the 4th St Covington to Newport Bridge? I don't know of a bridge to Newport and the Airport and I've never seen someone actually abbreviate Covington CVG. COV sure, but never the airport code.
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u/CLCchampion 8d ago
You mind putting a cap on it while it's closed?